120, Lot: 179. Estimate $150. Sold for $192. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANTONINUS PIUS. 138-161 AD. Æ Dupondius (26mm, 8.27 g). Struck 155 AD. Radiate head right / Britannia seated left on rock, resting head upon hand; shield and vexillum(?) in background before her. RIC III 930; BMCRE 1965 note; Cohen 118. VF, dark brown patina, reverse slightly doubled, typical small.

There is some debate as to whether or not the BRITANNIA asses of Antoninus Pius were struck in the Roman province of Britannia itself. The latest scholarship (see D.R. Walker, The Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath: Volume 2, the Finds from the Sacred Spring, pg. 295-296) repeatedly alludes to the coins as "British associated," and is careful to draw the line between declaring either a British or a Roman manufacture. In regards to the BRITANNIA dupondii, Walker does state that they were produced in Rome for shipment to Britain, and it is unlikely that the asses would have been manufactured at a mint other than the same as that striking the dupondii. Nevertheless, the peculiar fabric of this issue, so different than that which is normally encountered for this denomination of Rome mint bronzes and is of unquestionable provenance, as well as the fact that not a single specimen has been excavated outside of Britain would seem to indicate that provincial manufacture is not unlikely.

From the Tony Hardy Collection.